Windows Vista strange "carousel" display issue

[cheebz]

Hey guys, first of all thanks for clicking on the thread and I'll be very informative so give me a hand here please

I am encountering a very strange issue under Windows 7 Professional RTM installed on my netbook. At completely random times, the screen will go into what I can only describe as a carousel-like mode, and the projection of the image onto the monitor will just rotate kind of like a messed up film reel or something. I have installed the latest drivers from Intel and tried not installing those drivers. I also tried disabling aero effects by switching to classic mode but instead of going into carousel mode the screen would just turn black, which gives me even less information. There are no errors displayed when the problem occurs, in either situation (aero enabled/disabled).

Here is a video of the problem (1.3 MB): Link Removed due to 404 Error

I'm a rather experienced UNIX user, and one of the (very few) things that disappoints me about Windows is the lack of (or perhaps my lack of knowledge of) any error log files. Does anyone know if an error log or something of the sort exists in Windows for this kind of problem? That would be extremely helpful

I should also note a few things:
-- The operating system itself is running fine when this happens.
-- If I move the mouse vertically, the portion below the cursor will turn white (you can kind of see this in the video), and if I move the mouse horizontally, the screen will stagger its rotation and I can sometimes get it to get "stuck" in one position for a while before it breaks loose and continues its carousel rampage once more
-- I do not have a secondary display to troubleshoot with

SPECS
====
Machine: Toshiba NB205-N210
Display Adapter: Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional RTM

Thanks again for any and all help

 

[cybercore]

F8 -> Boot to Safe Mode, do you observe the same issue in safe mode ?

 

[cheebz]

Update

Thanks for the help guys.

I don't know why I didn't think of testing in safe mode earlier, oh well, I did and sure enough the problem doesn't occur there which indicates it's a driver issue. So the Intel driver that is installed now is (8.15.10.1930) where as the one that is installed automatically from the Windows Update repositories is (8.15.10.1724). I somehow recall doing this before and it didn't work, but maybe I was just going about it the wrong way and not uninstalling the current driver first or something.

Anyways, I'll report back and see if this fixes it.

 

[cheebz]

Bad news guys, it just happened again..

At this point I'm unsure of what to do. It should be noted that I don't have this problem under any GNU/Linux distribution, so I know it has something to do with how Windows 7 controls the hardware, and most likely not the hardware itself.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

I'll be standing by.

 

[Saltgrass]

Have you run the Windows Experience index on your netboot? If you have actually run it, what does it give for the different areas?

The event viewer (eventvwr.msc) is where many of the error messages are kept. There may be other logs, but I usually go there.

Have you checked with Toshiba to see if any fixes are available for known problems?

I also just found this in relation to a bios update. Does it mean anything to you?

Fixed: Video and Touchpad drivers intermittently get banged out in Windows 7 when Computrace is enabled

 

[cheebz]

Have you run the Windows Experience index on your netboot? If you have actually run it, what does it give for the different areas?

The event viewer (eventvwr.msc) is where many of the error messages are kept. There may be other logs, but I usually go there.

Have you checked with Toshiba to see if any fixes are available for known problems?

I also just found this in relation to a bios update. Does it mean anything to you?

Here is one suspicious event I found in the logs that may have to do with the problem (shown in two separate images because the box containing the message would not expand). It's the DCOM server complaining about "igfxsrvc.exe", which appears to be an Intel graphics service. The online help link suggests increasing the page file size, which I will try. I have also attached a screenshot of my Windows Experience Index scores.



Unfortunately there is only one thread on Toshiba's forums that is somewhat related to this problem and the posters concluded that she should just not be having problems with a one-day-old machine and told her to return it. Unfortunately I don't have that liberty since mine is much older and I didn't experience this problem before. I'm also pretty sure this doesn't have to do with hardware because I don't have this problem under other operating systems. I updated the BIOS a while ago but that fix has to do with Computrace LoJack which I do not have.

I also posted a link to this thread in a thread I created on the Intel graphics support forums. I'll post an update if they say anything.

 

[cheebz]

Well, the page file increase didn't work..

 

[Saltgrass]

The file to which you refer, does appear to be an Intel utility for you to use to adjust your graphics settings. If you feel it might be a problem, check this thread or find another one. If it is causing the problem you might be able to keep it from starting using msconfig.exe on the startup tab. You can probably stop it to check from the Services panel in Admin tools.

You might try using the personalized desktop to the windows basic emblem option, or the aero emblem option (first on left). It seems in some cases this resets the system.

I could not see the video, but your description of the mouse movement might suggest a mouse/touchpad driver problem.

 

[cheebz]

Update

Hey guys,

I have since re-installed Windows but this time I've chosen to not install the Intel driver update shown in Windows Update. As you can see in the screenshot, igfxsrvc.exe is no longer a running process. Hopefully this will solve my issues, however I somewhat resent the fact that I wasn't really able to narrow this problem down specifically. Anyways, I'll report back in a few days with an update. Thanks for all the help.

 

[cheebz]

Solved

Well guys it's been a while now and I guess I can consider this problem solved. I am no longer experiencing the strange carousel issue and things seem to be running smoothly. Thanks for all the help and hopefully this thread will help lots of other people in the future.

 

[cheebz]

Re: Solved

Well guys it's been a while now and I guess I can consider this problem solved. I am no longer experiencing the strange carousel issue and things seem to be running smoothly. Thanks for all the help and hopefully this thread will help lots of other people in the future.

Please note the problem has NOT been solved.

It has re-occured nearly 2 months after having been "fixed". Disregard information pertaining to igfxsrvc.exe crashing; that is unrelated apparently. See the following Toshiba support thread for the latest, most up-to-date information regarding the fix for this problem.

Link Removed